


The Boy in Blue

by Inkribbon796



Series: Masks and Maladies [47]
Category: Jacksepticeye Fandom, Markiplier fandom - Fandom, Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Altered Reality, Gen, Undercover Work, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-15
Updated: 2020-01-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 16:20:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22270057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Inkribbon796/pseuds/Inkribbon796
Summary: Patton is used to having weird dreams. Fighting marshmallows, and traversing mountains made of fudge. But lately he’s been having some weird dreams. Ones that seem like memories that he doesn’t remember having. Memories of a childhood that never could have happened. It doesn’t help that the more stones he uncovers, the stranger things get.
Series: Masks and Maladies [47]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538131
Comments: 2
Kudos: 38





	The Boy in Blue

**Author's Note:**

> Post for Patton’s birthday.

It was a well-kept secret that Patton loved naps and comfy blankets. But he hated dreaming. He, of course, kept it to himself. After all, telling other people would make them worry, and there was nothing anyone could do about his dreams.

Patton found himself in a hallway, eerie and unnatural shadows cast on the walls as he tried to find the kitchen but wound up in the living room for the third time in a row. He wanted to cry, all he wanted a midnight snack.

“Patty,” a lyrical, feminine voice called out.

“Mom?” Patton heard himself call out.

__ _ That’s not my mom! _ The rational, lucid-dreaming side of Patton’s mind reminded him.  _ This isn’t my house. I like being Patton, but I wasn’t Patton when I was a kid! Where am I? _

Still Patton turned around and saw Mayor Damien, looking exactly like he did when Patton had seen him four days ago, was smiling down at him in the middle of the hallway.

“Got lost looking for the bathroom again, Patty?” Damien walked over to him.

Patton felt himself start sobbing in relief and he rushed towards him. “Daddy!”

Damien frowned, but he knelt down and scooped little Patton up into his arms. He sighed, “You’ll get used to it. Kay and the others are adjusting too.”

Before Patton could be calmed by Damien’s words, or further driven into a panic that his father certainly wasn’t named Damien either, Patton was suddenly woken up from a dead sleep by a loud argument.

“Well it’s not my fault dude! How was I supposed to know he’d built a railgun?”

“Ye could’a looked, ye prick?”

Patton looked around, disoriented, his mouth dry and the Side felt like he’d been set on fire. “Who? Where?”

“Dude, you woke him up,” Bing told Marvin. The magician already storming off to fix his singed clothes, flipping the android off as he left.

Patton rolled off the couch, groggy but suddenly filled with adrenaline after his nightmare. He rushed towards Bing, grabbing the front of his shirt. “Where’s Logan and Roman?” Patton demanded desperately.

“Whoa, hey little buddy, calm down,” Bing tried to tell him. “Logan is off doing whatever the hell he does for the Host, and Roman isn’t back with Rey and Silv yet.”

Patton felt something inside him break. His whole body started shaking, he just curled into Bing, who was about as comfortable as trying to cuddle a steel wall. He felt like he was going to start crying.

“Hey, uh,” Bing tried to calm Patton down, but obviously didn’t know how to do it.

Patton was already pulling away, trying to smile and hold himself together. He had to. Patton didn’t have a choice. He’d just have to make do while they were on their missions. Patton couldn’t fuse with Virgil either, the emotional Side knew that Virgil wasn’t ready or willing to fuse with anyone of them. Especially when he tended to avoid them most of the time.

Dragging himself back over to the couch, Patton was about to sit down. He was stopped when he saw a small card on top of where his head had been laying. On one side it read:

_ That house takes and swallows whole, _

_ Those that should not pay its toll. _

_ NE 1085 Downwich Road _

Patton visibly tilted his head at the note. On the other side was a quote, also printed:  _ “You don’t speak of dreams as unreal. They exist. They leave a mark behind us.” _

“Hey, Bing,” Patton called back to Bing who was eyeing him in concern. “Did you slip me this?”

Bing walked over, taking the card, “Nah, too cryptic for me.”

“Where’s it from?” Patton asked, his grogginess quickly fading away.

The android lifted his sunglasses and his eyes glowed orange, scanning the card. After a second or two he answered, “It’s a quote from  _ The Lathe of Heaven _ by Ursula K. Le Guin. It’s a book.”

“What’s it about?” Patton studied the card.

“A man that can change reality through dreams, altering both the past and the present,” Bing answered. “You want the spoiler review?”

“Nah, I’m good without the play-by-play,” Patton told him, a pit forming in his gut. “I have to make a call.”

“You going out?” Bing asked.

“Yeah, I need to find the address?” Patton slid the card into a well-hidden flap in his phone cover.

“You mind if I tag along?” Bing took a step to follow him.

Patton almost shot him down, the need to not worry anyone around him almost too much for him to bear. But he shrugged, “Sure, if you want.”

“Thanks, I need to get outta here, and Host is still in,” Bing excused.

“Okay, I need to go in plain blues,” Patton told him. “Just let me make a few calls.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Bing saluted, and dimmed all his LED lights that accented his body.

Patton rolled his eyes, and began dialing a number that all the Sides, Dark or Light, had memorized.

“Joan,” Patton began after the phone picked up. “This is Patton, I need you to meet me at the Patisserie on 5th St.”

~::~ ~::~ ~::~

Patton didn’t like to dwell on the negative things in life. Life was too short, and he was too busy. But he’d always felt more like an observer, a trapped prisoner. Almost like a jigsaw piece from a sunny beach kid’s puzzle, trying to be crammed into a 1000-piece cityscape.

Patton and Bing calmly headed over to the pasty bakery on 5th st. It was a place that Patton liked to frequent, and right now Patton needed something familiar . . . and maybe some blueberry scones or some raspberry cheesecake.

Outside of the patisserie were Ethan, Robbie, and one of Patton’s old friends: Joan. All of them in ordinary clothes. Even Robbie was looking normal.

“Joan,” Patton cheered, racing over to give them a hug. “It’s been too long.”

“Why’d you chose here?” Ethan asked as Bing went to go sit down next to him. “We could have done this in the base.”

“You know,” Patton smiled with a huge grin, and motioned. “This place practically has my name written on it.”

Ethan cursed and smiled, Joan broke out in a laughed. Even Robbie and Bing were laughing.

“So we’ve got a couple free evenings,” Joan smiled.

“Want to help,” Robbie told all of them, his tone its normal slow and languidness, but no less excited.

“Okay first, I need some cheesecake,” Patton promised.

Joan held up a brown paper bag with the shop’s logo stamped onto it. “Way ahead of you.”

“Oh,” Patton sat down. “Thanks, Joan.”

Joan passed the compassionate side the bag, “Hey, what are friends for? B-team or not.”

“There’s not a B-team,” Patton scoffed as he dug out a small case for a large piece of cheesecake.

“Try telling that to the news,” Ethan scoffed, digging through bag of cookies.

“There’s not a B-team, and if there was, most of us would be on it,” Patton corrected. “Anyways, so I need you guys not to laugh.”

“No promises,” Joan gave Patton a wide smile.

“I’ve been having some weird dreams,” Patton kept going, Joan’s smile falling. “Really weird dreams. The kind that seem more like memories, but I don’t remember having them and they’re impossible.”

“Okay,” Joan point a finger at Patton, looking slightly concerned. “Not what I thought you were going to say.”

Immediately distracted, Patton looked at them. “Like what?”

“That you were going to confess to us,” Joan smiled. “You know, about you and Logan, and Roman?”

Patton looked at him in confusion for a bit, then got a little red. “I— Anyways! My dreams.”

“About boys,” Joan waggled their eyebrows.

“Stop,” Patton went fully red on the face. “I’m trying to be serious.”

“Hey, someone has to be overly invested in your love life, and Roman’s not here to pick up the slack,” Joan grinned, resting their chin on the palm of their hand.

“Patton about to explode?” Robbie asked in concern.

“If he’s lucky,” Joan answered

“Stop,” Patton pushed Joan little. “There are kids here.”

“What kids?” Joan moved their whole head while rolling their eyes. “Ethan’s only a couple years younger.”

“My ears,” Ethan goaded, his voice going a bit high pitched. “They burn.”

“So what’s these dream about, besides a hot guy you haven’t gossiped with me about?” Joan segwayed.

“Celine is working with Dark, but I can’t prove it,” Patton confessed.

“Who Celine?” Robbie asked. “Nice?”

“I don’t think so,” Patton decided.

“She’s the person you ran into with Jack and Silver, right?” Ethan asked. “I remember Mark saying something about Damien having a sister.”

“Yeah, and I don’t think he lied about that, but she just seems really . . . I don’t know. I’ve seen her before, I know I have,” Patton didn’t know how to say how he felt without sounding like he was completely crazy. “And then I had another weird dream and I found this.”

Patton pulled out the note. “It’s an address in town. It’s an abandoned building in the Althone section of town.”

“Can I see that?” Ethan asked. Patton passed it across the table. Using the opportunity to take a couple bites from his cheesecake.

Ethan turned it over, Joan leaning over to look at it as well.

“Hey, I know this place,” Ethan commented, turning the card over a couple times. “I used to live close to there. It’s an old orphanage.”

“Really?” Patton leaned in.

“Well it’s not anymore,” Ethan corrected. “Shut down some five years ago. Don’t know why, but no one’s bought it since and squatters come and go through the place all the time.”

“So the place isn’t under Dark’s control?” Patton questioned.

“Not to my knowledge,” Ethan answered. “Do you think you’ll find something about Celine here?”

“I don’t know, but I’m going,” Patton decided, wolfing down the rest of his cheesecake. “You guys can come with, or head back to the base.”

“With,” Robbie decided.

“Like we’d leave you hanging,” Bing said.

Joan and Ethan quickly agreed, and after a quick plan, the small group made their way to the old building. At first, if not for Bing they would have missed it.

Patton, still in his street clothes, looked from the card to the rundown building. A sign that would have probably advertised the orphanage in complete disrepair. “This place used to be an orphanage?”

“Yeah, something about poor maintenance,” Bing answered. “The kids were moved somewhere else.”

“That’s really sad,” Patton said.

“I doubt there’s anything in there for us,” Joan decided.

Patton’s brow furrowed and he walked up to the front door, seeing a giant padlock on the front and warning to stay out. “There has to be something.”

Bing tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to a broken window. “Prolly should check there first.”

It took some effort and some careful climbing, but the group snuck in. They didn’t see any people hiding out in the building. In fact, they didn’t see anything other than rubble and broken glass.

“You said people lived in here?” Joan asked Ethan.

“I haven’t lived here in awhile, maybe they cleared the place out,” Ethan defended.

“Bing?” Patton looked over at the android.

Bing’s eyes flashed orange for a couple seconds, “There’s no records of governmental activity in the area.”

Patton and Ethan took the lead as they started to go through the empty rooms, any remnants of furniture or beds had long since been either taken or destroyed. But in the back was a small office. An empty office.

“Well this place was a bust,” Joan commented.

“No,” Patton groaned.

Bing however walked towards the back of the room and started tapping his foot on the floor in random places, his eyes glowing orange.

“Yah find something there?” Ethan asked.

“Maybe,” Bing knelt down, and then used his enhanced frame to punch a hole through the floor and pull out a dusty box.

The air was quiet, still, and then a piercing siren went off.

Bing’s censor went off.

“We need to get out of here,” Ethan said.

“I’ve got five heat signatures on the way,” Bing warned, holding the box to him. “In bound in five minutes.”

“Get to a corner,” Ethan ordered, shoving Joan and Patton towards the closest corner. “Bing, behind me, now.”

Everyone followed his orders, and Ethan stood in front of them. The light in the room began to dim as color began to leech out of Ethan’s body. He didn’t quiet turn grey but it was close.

“Don’t move, don’t speak, don’t even breath if you don’t have to,” Ethan whispered, clearly exerting himself to cover than many people all at once.

After a minute, the door was kicked open as three guys in suits walked in, all of them with guns. They began to look around the room, glossing over the group as if they weren’t there. Patton could only guess they were some of Dark’s enforcers.

“Clear,” one of them called out of the room.

“There’s no way it’s clear,” Ed’s southern drawl barked at them, walking over to the hole in the floor, and starting to root through it. “Shit! How long has this thing been here?”

“Maybe they climbed through the window?” one of the enforcers gestured to it.

Ed turned on him, “Then you best figure out if they got away with anything before Dark kills us both.”

Sweat started to bead on Ethan’s face. Patton tried to hold his breath as Ed looked around.

“Evacuate the whole place,” Ed decided.

“But Dark,” one of the enforcers cut in.

“Will thank me later,” Ed snapped. “It’s compromised, an’ he said if it does to wash the whole place. Get a demo crew in. I don’t care, we’ll trash the whole place. L.O site be damned.”

Then he stomped out, the enforcers looking between each other before following after him. Ethan held on for an extra half minute to be sure they were gone. He almost crashed to the floor panting heavily.

“Thanks,” Patton whispered.

“Let’s just get out of here, we can call the cops a couple blocks away,” Ethan rasped.

“Good idea,” Joan agreed. “Who knows how many there are here?”

Quickly and quietly, the team just left, Bing helping Ethan out the window. They snuck down a couple blocks as Bing called in the police. Patton quickly taking the lockbox in Bing’s hands.

They were still trying to open it as Logan and Marvin came in to help the police search the building. After giving some testimonies, Logan took one look at Bing and box and just told them to head back to the station to investigate it.

After a quick trip, Bing and Robbie staying to help with the hideout, Patton was finally able to get the box open. All of them now in costume. Inside were a couple files. Some invoices of expenses that Patton quickly turned over to the police. But there were also a file, looking like it’d been hastily shoved inside the box.

Joan pulled them out and started reading through it.

“What it is?” Ethan asked as Patton was helping to separate out invoices with another detective. The Side looked over at what Joan was holding.

“They’re just some record files,” Joan answered. His brow furrowed in confusion.

“Who?” Patton asked.

“Patton Elijah Sanders, and an Arthur Stephen Isaacs,” Joan read off in confusion. “Wait a minute.”

“Let me see that,” Patton rushed over to him.

“That’s you right?” Ethan asked, leaning in. “Didn’t know you went to this place.”

“I didn’t, my folks are still alive,” Patton stared at what should, by all rights, be a picture of a very young Thomas. Probably around four or five at best. “My name’s not really Patton, and my middle name doesn’t even begin with an  _ ‘E’ _ .”

Ethan stared at him. “What?!”

Patton startled. “Long story, but my name’s Thomas.”

“Then why did you tell us your name was Patton,” Ethan asked, looked more than a little hurt.

“Because it,” Patton looked away, uncomfortable. “It’s super hard to explain. And I really shouldn’t get into it here without talking to Logan and Roman. The reason I became Patton, made it so I can fuse with Roman and Logan. We’re like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, and my piece is named Patton.”

Patton just stared at his file. “I need to have a talk with Dee,” the Side decided. “He’ll probably just talk me in circles, but at least I can figure out if he knows something.”

Patton was already starting out the door to the room, and crashed into Logan.

“Any luck?” Logan demanded.

“I need to fuse, now,” Patton grabbed him by the arms, the clawing desperation from earlier in the day returning with full force and Patton didn’t think he could bear another second on his own anymore.

“A botched raid is hardly an emergency,” Logan told him.

Patton gripped onto the logical side tighter. “Fine, I’ll just ask Roman then.”

“Wait,” Logan said right before Patton could force himself to let go. “You’re— You—”

He took a deep breath and took off his visor. “Explain to me what’s going on and if you still want to fuse I will, I promise.”

Taking a deep breath, Patton nodded and walked back over to the files, Logan taking a look at them and the contents of the box, looking just as worried as Patton did.

Patton and Logan didn’t wind up fusing that day, but he did get enough cupcakes to go into a sugar coma and sleep off his troubles. Marvin and the Host helping this sleep be dreamless. Logan and Roman watching over him as best as they could.


End file.
